Mass Effect: Requiem
by Jackie Almasy
Summary: A collaboration story with author Seracen. This is a rewrite of the Mass Effect 3 ending with events of what we believe should have happened. More details in chapter one.
1. Chapter 1

Mass Effect: Requiem

By Jackie Almasy

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Chapter 1

The world around her was anything but the peaceful sleep she had been trying to have less than twelve hours ago. Through the pain of her burned body and broken bones, Shepard was granted no rest for now. She could hear a faint voice gaining volume through the haze of her mind.

It was anything but quiet.

"Shepard!"

Her body begged her mind to ignore the voice. It had been months since she had slept, much less rested. The constant nightmares of the endless black forest haunted her dreams night after night. It was always the same actions but varied time to time in context. Shepard would look up to the continuous chorus of whispers around her. Out of the corner of her eyes would be shadows constantly evading her. They became illusive but never far from her. Always whispering and accusing her of their lives and the actions she took that impacted them.

She had always heard of post traumatic stress but had never imagined herself to ever be a victim of it. Like clockwork, the ghostly image of the child back from Earth would look up from his playing and run away. Her heart ached every time she saw his scared face and run from her in terror. This wasn't what she wanted. No, it was far from it.

She had fought all those years for all of them: humanity, turians, asari, and more. She had bled, been scarred, and sacrificed everything to protect the galaxy she called home. Yet, the boy would only run away from her in fear. Her reaction was always the same. She would begin running as fast as her body would allow her though it never seemed fast enough.

As she would run, Shepard would hear the accusing whispers grow in volume. She tried desperately to ignore their anger and sadness but as time wore on in her running, it grew heavier on her heart.

"SHEPARD!"

"_No, please, just let me sleep. I'm so tired."_

"Shepard, wake up!"

Just as she would reach the child in her dreams, reality won her over and tore her from the desperate rest she needed. The pain of her injuries returned to the forefront of her mind and it took all she had to not scream in pain. Not that her injured lungs would allow it to happen anyways.

She looked up to the view of space above her. The battle of the Fleet against the Reapers was raging above her. Every second or so, a small red light would burst to life among the millions of stars across the view of the cosmos. Shepard knew that each time she saw that light it was most likely another ship being destroyed.

With more lives being lost every second, it was a reality the marine was accustomed to seeing but never got used to. If the day ever came that she did, it would mean that essential part of her humanity would be gone.

"Where am I?" Shepard asked out loud without realizing she was until she posed the question. A silvery blue light caught her eye. With more effort than she knew she had left, Shepard pushed herself up onto her feet. Her left arm immediately cradled around her stomach. She could feel the dripping blood along her injured arm and drenched tattered clothes.

What she questioned was, were they drenched from sweat or blood from open wounds?

The silvery light flickered continuously feet from her. An array of voices and different species of the likes she had never seen flashed before her. Was this a VI? If so, how old must it have been to continue cycling through these many unheard of languages and species before?

"I don't understand you." Shepard attempted to communicate and hoped she would get an answer back she could understand.

The image of she could have only dreamed about appeared in front of her. Some of the languages only seemed liked gibberish to her while others sounded like numbers, mathematical equations almost.

Suddenly sending out a beam of light that scanned Shepard up and down for a few seconds, the VI went offline for a few seconds. It came back to life in the form that nearly made Shepard throw up.

The little boy from Earth stood before her.

"Can you understand me now?"

"Yes but how did you do that?" Shepard asked. She watched the boy turn and look around at the Citadel before him and the ongoing battle in the background.

"Biometric scans on the molecular level introduce valuable information to your neural communication systems. I take this information and apply it to my own protocols."

"What do you mean 'I'?" Shepard voiced as her eyes widened. "Are you an AI?"

"No. I am more than that. I have always been here since the beginning of the chaos." The young boy boldly stated as if it had done so numerous times before

"Who are you?"

"I am the Catalyst."

Shepard almost shook her head in disbelief but then again, at this point, she was ready to believe anything she saw before her eyes. "How can that be? I thought the Citadel was the catalyst?"

"The Citadel is a part of me as I am a part of it." The Catalyst explained as he began walking down the smooth path to the ray of energy being generated before them. All of Shepard's instincts were telling her to turn the other way and run. But what if her gut instinct was wrong this time?

"I need to destroy the Reapers." The marine looked up to the mechanical AI giants above her. "Can you help me? Do you know how to end them?"

"Perhaps." The Catalyst stated. "The cycle of the created rebelling against the creators will continue. It is inevitable. Your species will be assimilated into the continuous solution."

She didn't like where this conversation was going. She didn't like it at all.

"What do you mean solution? Are you saying the Reapers are part of your solution?"

"Yes. They are the agents of my will. They will help all organic life ascend and leave the next species to grow." The young boy stopped walking and turned to face Shepard fully. The smile on his face sent chills of dread down her spine. "We will stop the chaos. We will enlighten you."

"Enlighten us? By harvesting all organic life in the galaxy? I don't think so!" Shepard venomously responded. "I think we'd all rather keep our forms than join you."

"You cannot. Species have proved time and time again that the synthetics they create will always challenge their creators. It is a never ending chaos." The Catalyst countered, firmly standing its ground. "Without us, there will never be an ending."

"You're taking away our future, our hope! Without it, we are no better than machines." Shepard shook her head in sheer disbelief. Part of her couldn't believe she was actually having this conversation while the battle above her raged on. "How can you justify a massacre of an entire galaxy to stop chaos?"

"We leave the lesser species alone. Only the advanced species are harvested. Thus ensuring life in the galaxy continues." The young child stated as if speaking to an idiot.

Shepard opened her mouth to continue stating her case when she stopped momentarily. A persistent buzzing was echoing in her ears. She groaned and held her head for a moment before the sounds stopped. Perhaps it was merely that she had bumped her head in being transported up to the Citadel?

"What you think of as a solution only seems like galactic wide murder to me!" She spat out, narrowing her eyes defiantly at the Catalyst. The buzzing came back and her mind seemed to be in more pain momentarily. What was this buzzing sound and why did it hurt her mind every time she heard it?

"You cannot fight this. We will help your species ascend. We will add you."

"Like hell you'll add us!" Turning around, Shepard stared momentarily up at Earth. "I'll keep fighting and I will find a way to end this war!"

As she began walking away, Shepard made it no more than three slowly steps before stopping dead in her tracks to a voice she never thought she'd hear again.

"Hold on Skipper! Let's talk this over."

Looking over her shoulder, Shepard felt her heart stop. The anxiety of Virmire returned and the ghosts of her past that she never hoped to face again returned from their graves.

"Ashley?" Shepard questioned.

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_This is a collaboration effort between author Seracen and myself. We were discussing how we would have like to rewrite the Mass Effect 3 ending so, here we are. Both stories will be titled the same thing. Seracen will be posting this story from the perspective of default male Shepard and mine will be default female Shepard. The link to his story is on my Favorites Author page so please feel free to check out this page!_

_We're very excited to see where this leads and we hope you enjoy the ride._

_Till next time,_

_Jackie Almasy_

Mass Effect 3 is copyrighted by BioWare and EA. I own nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

Mass Effect: Requiem

By Jackie Almasy

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Chapter 2

"Hey Shepard. Long time no see." The image of Ashley smiled warmly at Shepard. Not quite see through, the woman standing before Shepard was exactly as she remembered her to be. Her dark hair pulled up into the tight bun, that smirk that belonged to her alone, and those eyes. Alert, focused, and occasionally twinkling with a bit if mischievousness that she was known to have around her friends.

This was Ashley. By God, she was standing right in front of Shepard as if she hadn't even died. Yet something seemed off.

"Ashley. How are you…" Shepard couldn't even finish her own question. The shame soaring through her was too much. Shepard couldn't even look Williams in the eyes anymore. "I'm so sorry that I left you."

"Commander, you need to stop beating yourself up over this." Ashley began as she walked foreword a couple of steps. Shepard would have given anything to hear the thumping of her armor boots on the floor before them.

"_Wait, anything?"_ Shepard thought to herself. That train of thought didn't seem right to her…

"I would have done the same thing in your shoes." Ashley spoke gently, smiling at her comrade and friend. "Besides, the LT and you had something going on. I wouldn't have wanted to end something like that for anything."

"I was your commanding officer! I should have foreseen Saren planning that! It should have," Shepard was interrupted.

"Been you?" Ashley finished her sentence. "I don't think so Commander. Over my dead body."

"Not funny Ash." Shepard simply sadly.

"Hey, can't blame a girl for trying." Ashley's tone suddenly changed. "But seriously Commander, we need to talk."

"You can't seriously be considering what they're saying!" Shepard winced as she turned her form around. Her ribs creaked under the pressure of her shifting and walking. It didn't sound good.

"After seeing all this Shepard, would it be such a bad thing? Think about it!" Ashley continued as her eyes grew wide with concern. "The Reapers have nearly won! Even with all those forces up there, we're all cornered with no options left."

Something seemed off. The Ashley that Shepard knew would never have admitted defeat to these synthetic bastards. She would, and did, have fought tooth and nail to her death to make sure they never succeeded.

"Out of all the crew members that were on my ship, you would be the last person I would think to hear those words from! What happened to you? Two years ago, you would have been dead set against anything beyond humanity telling us which way to go and now you want the Reapers to destroy us?" Shepard nearly screamed as her eyes grew wide with anger.

The ringing returned and grew in volume. Was that an undertone she heard beneath the ringing this time? She couldn't tell. It came and went so quickly.

"A good soldier knows when to raise the flag at the expense of his underlings." Ashley said as she looked out to the battle. "I thought you would have understood that Commander."

"How is that any different than what they plan to do to us?" Shepard demanded.

"We'd live on through them. We wouldn't die, not really. Sure our physical bodies would disappear but we'd take on a whole new level of existence. Think of it Shepard!" Ashley exclaimed.

Shepard pointed to the three lights blazing in the background behind them. "I will never fall for that trap! Either way, the Reapers win and it means the end of all life, organic and synthetic, in this galaxy! I have fought too hard for too long to give up now!"

Shepard suddenly had an idea. A test.

'Ashley…" Shepard began before openly groaning at the buzzing now becoming a full on ringing in her head. Wincing, Shepard gripped her head tightly. Through the pain, she pushed on. "But something ere the end, some work of noble note, may yet be done. Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods."

Ashley's form lifted an eyebrow. "Skipper, what are you talking about?"

"You're not the real Ashley…" Shepard began, narrowing her eyes angrily. "The real Ashley knew Tennyson's poem Ulysses by heart!"

Ashley's eyes flashed red and disappeared before the Catalyst took form once again. His voice this time was anything but gentle and coaxing.

"I offer you peace and you wish to continue to fight the inevitable!" The child accused.

"You offer us nothing! Admit it, you're just as scared as we are but organics have something to fight for. Our future and you have nothing!" Shepard grinned as she thought for a second she saw the Cataylst frown.

"What you propose is impossible. Your peace will not last! Your children will repeat your forefather's mistakes and repeat the chaos all over again."

"I will fight until I die for the future of this galaxy and nothing you do will ever convince me otherwise!" Shepard got inches within the child's face and declared loudly. Now glaring angrily, the image of the child faded out entirely.

Shepard blinked in surprise and looked around. She was completely alone now. Looking up into space, Shepard's eyes immediately widened at the sight of the Destiny Ascension coming into the battle directly.

"I need to contact Admiral Hackett!" Shepard whispered out loud before suddenly stopping. The ringing in her head suddenly grew in immense volumes and the undertone she thought she had heard before grew in volume. The deafening call of the Reapers that she heard back on Earth upon their first attack was now rippling through her mind.

"_Oh God, no! NO!" _Shepard thought as she struggled to regain control of her trembling body. Pushing through the pain as best as she could, the woman opened her eyes to see the familiar hologram of the Reaper giant appear before her and extend its massive tendrils.

"Your interference stops now." Harbinger's voice boomed through the space. The holographic image of the giant dwarfed her immensely and yet even now, Shepard found the courage to stand up for what she believed in.

"You're scared. I can hear it in your voice Harbinger." Shepard simply stated before she grinned smugly. "You've never faced anything like humans before. You can't comprehend why we continue to struggle. Well let me tell you one thing…"

"I will not stop until I find a way to destroy you all! We may lose to you but it will be on our terms! We will not stand idly by while you destroy our homes! We will rebuild, we will come back, and we will fight stronger than ever! Do you hear me Harbinger?"

Harbinger's image remained silent for a few seconds, seeming to process the declarations just made before him.

"Small words from insignificant specks of organic life. We have heard them countless times before and each time we have succeeded. We will ascend you. You will submit. Your Illusive Man will be proven wrong." Harbinger spoke coldly.

"The Illusive Man?" Shepard openly questioned before shaking her head and laughing once. "So he was right. He found a way to stop you!"

"Impossible as we controlled him long before he dared attempt to control us. Watch Shepard as your civilizations and world burn before you. We are your end." Harbinger recited.

"Not before I burn you to the ground first." Shepard challenged, smirking in defiance.

"The Indoctrination process has already begun. You have already lost." The giant machine spoke before cutting off the hologram completely and leaving Shepard alone.

Eyes widening, Shepard looked over her shoulder at the pad leading back down to the platform below. The Illusive Man's corpse was still down there. Maybe if she could get down there in time, she could find something in his omni tool.

She couldn't believe her luck. After all this time, that bastard was the key to ending it all. Wherever he was now, she would make sure his actions for humanity did not go to waste. She would use it to save the entire galaxy, not just humanity.

As the wounded marine neared the elevator needed to lower her down towards the platform, she suddenly doubled over in pain.

The loud commanding bellow of the Reapers filled her mind. The Indoctrination process had begun.

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Mass Effect 3 is copyrighted by BioWare and EA. I own nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

Mass Effect: Requiem

By Jackie Almasy

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Chapter 3

The commanding howl was too much. Shepard dropped to her knees and gripped her head so hard it would have been a relief if it popped off right there and now. Memories associated with the sound flooded through her mind. Watching Earth around her burn as the Reapers descended upon her home.

The burning flames in her memories flooded over her. Her body was growing hot, painfully hot. Shepard needed to break this trance now before it was too late.

She needed something more pressing to take over her mind. She could only think of one thing.

Falling foreword, Shepard let her full body weight hit her broken ribs as she hit the elevating platform. Screaming in agony as she felt her bones seem to snap more, her body arched up trying to relieve the pressure on her rib cage. Tears flowed down her face as the pain drowned out the howling in her head.

Panting, Shepard clutched her hands tightly together as she tried focusing her mind. The howling was gone. Her thoughts were her own again and she had to act before she lost the will to challenge it.

"Citadel controls. Got to find Illusive Man's body. Search onmi-tool." Shepard spoke step by step, more to remind her than anything else. Forcing herself to her knees, one arm cradled her aching chest while the other went to single control she found on the far side.

The mechanics glowed and began lowering the platform back to the Citadel Controls. Only it stopped about two meters from reconnecting with its original spot.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Shepard exclaimed as she dragged her broken form to the edge of the elevator to look down. She had come this far already. What was one more fall?

Before she could stop herself, Shepard rolled off the elevator and fell to the ground. She hit her back with a sickening thud as the wounds along her spine tore open again. Her body immediately rolled to the side and vomited what was left of her food.

The pain was so overwhelming and the marine didn't know what was going to happen next. Ignoring the tears streaming down her face, Shepard looked around slowly. Anderson's body remained where it had always been. His head fallen to the side and eyes closed. He looked peaceful almost.

Shepard's lips quivered at seeing her fallen comrade. Crying out at the effort to get up, Shepard began dragging herself over towards the Illusive Man's body. Somehow, she got her legs working and crawled over to the dead body.

'You better have this magic trick still up your sleeve you son of a bitch!" Shepard swore openly as she managed to active her omni-tool. Scanning it over the Illusive Man, Shepard managed to input the data needed for the scanning option to begin. A few seconds later, the image of the data bank needed was not stored in his omni-tool but his frontal lobe.

"Figures it'd be in the last place anyone would look. "

Staring down at the empty eyes, Shepard felt her senses slowly becoming overwhelmed with a sense of rage. If this bastard hadn't shot Anderson, maybe her commanding officer and friend would have lived to see a day without Reapers invading. The thought birthed a raging inferno inside her and before Shepard could stop herself, the woman activated her blade and drove it into the right temple of the dead man.

Hearing the sickening squish of torn muscle, bone, and brain matter, the soldier twisted the knife with a deadly efficiency and torn open a hole in the man's forehead.

Taking out her blade, Shepard panted from the effort exertion. Closing her eyes, Shepard thrusted her fingers into the opening of the man's skull and felt around for the tiny implant. Pushing aside brain matter, she finally found the blasted machinery and pulled it out of the man's brain.

Inserting the chip into her omni tool, Shepard fell back into a sitting position as she brought up the information. Hundreds of files, photos, and logs were suddenly at her command. Her eyes widened to the horrific images of indoctrinated victims and what looked like to be profiles on the Reapers. What particularly caught her eyes was the file on Harbinger.

Accessing it, an image of the massive Reaper spun around a few times before highlighted sections of the structure became available to look at. A complete diagnostic of a Reaper code? What would the Illusive Man be doing with this? Pressing a few keys, the full code came up into view.

A lot of it was gibberish to Shepard but as she scanned through it, a memo of the Illusive Man's came into view.

_Research into the code linked to the indoctrination husks has been discovered. While transmitting to the unwilling host, the signal reformats itself to interact with the biological matter of the brain. While unclear how the process begins, we've discovered what the process it and how to use it against the Reapers._

Shepard continued reading, trying to ignore the disturbing parts.

_If the signal can remain its original form before entering into the host, we can send it back as a weapon to disable the Reapers. Possibly even destroy them. Still in experimental stages and will need to be tested but immense progress has been made today. These sacrifices will not be forgotten when it is humanity that will be the dominant force in this galaxy._

"You actually found a way to save us…" Shepard whispered as she looked back to the corpse. "And you never shared it."

Shaking her head, Shepard tapped into her communications and sent out a broadcast signal.

"Shepard to Admiral Hackett!" Silence and static followed for the first couple of seconds. "Shepard to Admiral Hackett! Does anyone read me? Normady, do you copy?"

"I read you Shepard!" Hackett's voice broke through the static. It was enough to be heard but still broken up. "Thought we lost you!"

"Not yet sir! Listen, the Catalyst is a trap set up by the Reapers! We can't activate it or we sentence the galaxy to extinction!"

"God help us all… That was our last shot! Our one hope against the Reapers! We're getting killed out here Shepard." Hackett exclaimed, his voice filled with bitterness and anger.

"All is not lost yet sir! The Illusive Man found a way to disrupt the Reapers with their own signal. If he's correct, this could destroy the very core of the Reapers and send them back to Hell!" Shepard managed out, panting in between sentences. The pain was growing by the minute. As was the Reaper's bellowing sound within her mind.

"Do you have it Commander?"

"Y-Yes sir! Normandy, do you copy?"

Joker's voice patched through miraculously. "Joker here! You alright Commander?"

"Hanging in there Joker. Did EDI catch all of that?" Shepard silently begged she did. She didn't know if she had the strength to repeat any of that.

"Affirmative Shepard. Upload the data and I will try to use the Normandy's full potential to broadcast the signal out. With any luck, the signal will transmit to the relay and send it out throughout the galaxy." EDI calculated and was then silent for a second before continuing. "There is also a possibility of transferring this data into energy equations that could be used to attack the Reapers with."

"Do it. That's an order!" Hackett demanded.

"But sir," Joker suddenly interrupted. "Processing that much data could kill EDI!"

"Joker, we have no choice! I don't want anymore blood on my hands but I can't do anything else on my end! It's up to EDI!" Shepard stated. Her heart was growing heavy. The probability of this much information killing EDI was high but unless she broadcasted it out through information channels and possibly filtering it through the weapons system, there was no chance of survival.

"Jeff, trust in me. We have no choice." EDI responded sadly over the intercom.

Silence followed before a gruff acknowledgement was made. "Affirmative. Ready to receive information!"

Pressing a few buttons quickly, Shepard transferred the data to the Normandy.

"Received. Computing data…" EDI responded.

"Shepard, can you move at all?" Hackett asked, his voice beginning to drown out.

"Barely. S-Severely wounded and can't move much. I might need to take you up on that extraction!"

"Hold on Shepard, I'll send a team in right away. They-" Hackett was suddenly cut off, ending the transmission completely.

Shepard was completely alone now. She had done all she could do. It was now up to the crew and fate.

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Branch Off:

If you got the Geth and Quarians to work together, saved the Volus Dreadnought Kwunu, and the saved the asari engineers from the Trikalon system, go to Chapter **4-A**.

If you only got one/or the other of Geth or Quarians, go to Chapter **4-B**.

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Mass Effect 3 is copyrighted by BioWare and EA. I own nothing.


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